Penny did mail-outs at home in the morning, so I called her from work. I could hear her stuffing envelopes while we talked. I asked about the kids and things. “So how’s your husband?” I added. “Carl said he went back to work.”
“Yeah. We’re getting along much better. He’s cut back on the drinking and brings home his paycheck. Doesn’t go to the bar half as much.”
“He’s still going to that bar where he got hurt?”
“Oh, no, a new one, Cactus Jack’s, a nicer place — no nude dancers, and it’s only a couple miles from here, so he can take a cab if he needs to. He promised he wouldn’t go back over to Babydoe’s.”
Done. It was smooth. I didn’t even have to ask where he hung out. “Yeah,” I said. “He gets to the job in the morning. That’s what I keep telling Carl.”
“He only goes out Fridays and maybe one or two other days. I can handle that. I’m not complaining.”
She was a good woman. I felt tears well in my eyes. “You’re a saint, honey. I have to get back to work now — the truckers are coming in for their checks. Carl would like to hear from you one night soon. He worries.”
I had all I needed to know — likely she’d wanted to tell somebody and didn’t care to stir Carl up and listen to all his godly orders. She wasn’t complaining — goddamn. It was amazing that her and my husband were of the same blood. And, yeah, she was being taken advantage of — I could hear it. Now I had to tell Carl when and where to go without him realizing it was my plan.
That night I started to move him along. “I talked to your sister Penny this morning,” I told him at the dinner table.
“Oh yeah?” He was shoveling in chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes with sawmill gravy, and corn, one of his favorite meals.
I ate with one hand behind my back, protecting my arm from any quick snaps. “She’s a trouper,” I said. “Wow.”
“Huh?”
“I never heard of anybody with such a big heart. You told me she adopted Ray’s son, right?
“Yeah. Unbelievable.” He chewed a mouthful. “Him and Penny already had one kid, and he was fuckin around on her. I’d’ve killed the motherfucker, if I’d known at the time. I was in Alaska — workin the pipeline. Penny kept it all from me till after the adoption.” He shook his head and wiped the last gravy from his plate with a roll. “Lumps in the mashed potatoes, hon.”
“She works hard too — all those jobs — and doesn’t say a thing about him having boys’ night out at some new bar whenever he wants. I couldn’t handle it.” I paused and took a drink of my beer to let the thought sink in. “He’s a damn good-looking guy. Bet he has no trouble screwing around on her.”
Carl looked up and wiped his mouth on his hand. “You mean now? Where’d you get that idea?”
I shrugged. “Just her tone. Shit. If anybody’s going to heaven, she will.”
“You think he’s hot, don’t ya? I’ll kill the son of a bitch. What new bar?”
“Cactus Jack’s. I bet you he’s doing it. She’d be the last to say anything. Why else would he stay out half the night?”
Carl threw his silverware on the plate. “I ought to kill the son of a bitch.”
“I don’t like to hear that stuff.”
“It’s the real world, and he’s a fuckin asshole. He needs to be fucked.”
“I hate to hear a woman being beat down, thinking she’s doing the right thing for the kids. Course, you never know what’s the glue between two people.”
“My sister’s done the right thing all her life, and it’s never gotten her anywhere.” He was seething.
“She’s one of a kind, a saint really.” I tucked my hand under my leg — feeling protective of my arm — took a bite of fried steak, and chewed.
Carl rocked back on the legs of the chair. His eyes were focused up near the ceiling. “Hmm,” he said. “Hmm.”
“Don’t think about getting involved. We have enough problems.”
“You don’t have a thing to do with this. It’s family.”
I gathered up the dishes and went to the sink feeling smug, even though I was a little freaked by the feeling that the plan might just work. I was wiping the stove when the phone rang.
“Got it!” Carl yelled.
It was Penny. She’d followed my suggestion to call. I could hear him trying to draw her out. He went on and on, and it didn’t sound like he made any progress. By the time he slammed down the receiver, he had himself more angry at her than he was at her husband. He went raging into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. It was so hard I was surprised the mirror didn’t fall off.
I finished up in the kitchen and was watching Wheel of Fortune by the time he came out, their special Labor Week show.
He sat down on the couch next to me and put his hand on my thigh, squeezed it. “You got some room on your Visa, don’t you? How ’bout making me a reservation to Dallas? I’ll pay you back. I need to talk to that asshole Raymond face to face.”
I stared at the TV, trying to control my breathing. “He’s not going to listen to you. He thinks you’re a moron.”
“A moron, huh? I think not. Make a reservation for me—”
I was shaking my head. “You can’t go out there. What about work?”
“Do it — get me a flight after work on Friday, back home Saturday.”
“Not much of a visit.”
He squinted and ran his tongue from cheek to cheek inside his mouth. “I’m just gonna talk to the motherfucker.”
I’d never seen murder in anybody’s eyes, but it was hard to miss. I took a deep, rattling breath. It was too goddamned easy — bloodcurdling easy. I reminded myself it was for my own survival. I needed both goddamned arms.
That night I called for a reservation. I had to make it three weeks in advance to get a decent fare. I’d saved up some Christmas money, so that way I didn’t have to put the ticket on my charge. I could only hope nobody ripped Raymond before Carl got his chance. The guy that stuck Ray the first time was out on probation. It would be just my luck.
The days dragged. The hope that I would soon be free made Carl’s behavior unbearable. I got myself a half-dozen detective novels and kept my nose stuck inside one when I could. I cooked the rest of the time, lots of his favorite foods, and pie, trying to keep his mouth full so I wouldn’t have to listen to it — and throw him off if he was the least bit suspicious of what I had in mind. It was tough to put on the act in bed, but he was in a hurry most of the time, so he slathered on the aloe and poked me from behind. Tight and fast was fine with him. His ego made him blind — thinking he was smarter than everybody else, especially me, and that I could possibly still love him.
Thursday morning, the day before Carl was supposed to leave, he walked into the bedroom before work. I smelled his coffee breath and kept my eyes shut. A tap came on my shoulder. “I don’t know where that new bar is,” he said. “What was it? Cactus Bob’s? Near their place?”
“Jack’s. Cactus Jack’s. I’ll get directions at work — off the computer. No problem — Mapquest.”
“Get the shortest route from the airport to Babydoe’s and from there to the cactus place. He’s probably lying to Penny, still going back to Doe’s for the tits and ass.”
I printed out the route during lunch. It was a little complicated. When I came in the door that evening, I handed Carl three pages of directions and maps. He flipped through them. “Write these on one sheet — bigger. I can’t be shuffling this shit in the dark while I’m driving a rental around Arlington.”